Digitization, Donor Relations, and Undergraduate Instruction

Collection development archivists know that building a partnership with a potential donor may take years, occasionally decades. From the perspective of a donor, contributing unique materials to an archival repository – a local historical society, academic archives, or a research library – can be an emotionally complicated process. A donor must have acquired a degree of separation from the material, but also have a deep sense of trust in the repository soliciting the records. Often, the initial contribution to a repository consists of records void of sentimental or financial value. As the relationship between a donor and a repository strengthens, donors (hopefully) begin contributing more noteworthy and revealing materials, including personal correspondence, diaries, and photographs. This scenario is routine not only with the acquisition of personal papers, but the records of businesses, membership organizations, and all other kinds of archival records

An Anniversary Opportunity: Digitization of Student Yearbooks

Anniversary celebrations provide archivists and librarians with many unique opportunities to build public support for their programs. Archivists, in particular, are expected to be a resource for such events. Handled adroitly, anniversary programming can offset the “dusty shelf” stereotype that frustrates many professionals. Moreover, resource allocators planning an anniversary are likely to look to their archives for ideas and special projects, initiatives that may result in additional financial and staffing resources. Describing the positive public relations value of anniversaries, archivist Tim Ericson has gone so far as to suggest “The Archivist\u27s First Law of Outreach”: Human beings are unable to resist celebrating any anniversary divisible by twenty-five

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

The Inventions, Though of Little Importance, Opened All Doors for Me

Wisconsin Historical Society State Archivist offers a visual presentation of John Muir\u27s wizardry wooden contraptions- some of which dazzled visitors at the 1860 Wisconsin State Fair

The Inventions, Though of Little Importance, Opened All Doors for Me

Wisconsin Historical Society State Archivist offers a visual presentation of John Muir\u27s wizardry wooden contraptions- some of which dazzled visitors at the 1860 Wisconsin State Fair